Are we having fun yet?

Alternate title: Are we having an ice time? Short answer, yes!

It's been an action packed few days, and the cycling has been quite difficult, although extremely rewarding. In fact any of 3 days could probably have qualified as the most difficult day of a 3-month cross-Canada tour.

We headed out of Reykjavik and cycling to Thingvellir, which was the meeting place for the island's government in ancient times. The Law-Speaker would stand up on one of these rocks, read out the country's laws, and then I guess they would judge people and either drown them or hang them. Gloomy place!

This site also happens to be located in the rift valley where the North American and Eurasian plates are separating. We stuck to the North American side. After another midnight sunset,

we elected to take a very dumb "shortcut" chosen by me. Did you know that Icelandic has 17 words for "terrible gravel road surface?" Apparently they all translate to "Sure, it's OK for cycling" or at least they did for the woman at the info centre. Anyway, what followed was an absolutely gruelling 60km on gravel through a desolate (but absolutely beautiful) valley. Going was slow as we had to walk the bikes at times.

We eventually made it out without mishap. Thankful to be back on the main highway, we were immediately blasted by 50km/h headwinds for the next two days. (Again, at least the scenery was amazing)

Another couple of days (and a couple of mountain passes) later,

and we're holed up in Akureyri, Iceland's second largest city! I should point out that I spent 20 minutes composing this posting, and 20 installing Chrome on this computer because OH MY GOD Internet Explorer is terrible.

In any case, we're doing relatively well

..and after another couple of pints of Kaldi Pale Ale,

we'll strike out East and head for the Great Gravel Desert! (I don't think it's called that, but this makes it sound more exciting.) As ever, who knows when we'll find more functional computers, but we'll do what we can.